I'd like to make a little disclaimer before I begin: I really do not want to start any fights here. I don't want to hurt any feelings, or roack any particular persons particular boat. I know for a fact I probably am ill-informed and lacking vital context in some specific scenarios. But this is a forum where I feel I can, in hopefully good confidence, talk to you guys about how I feel. So, here goes.
I'm a little worried about the community. I don't have, for the most part, anytthing concrete about this: No partictular names come to mind immediatley (though I will admit forum trawling is not my forte.) and it may, over all, be nothing. But... Over the time I've been playing SD (Coming up on two years now, on or off) I've been getting... I dunno, negative vibes from the playerbase.
Not overall. I love the game, that's why I keep coming back. It feels more like a potential darkness than a pervasive one that is ever present. A lack of tact or consideration for someone's feelings on a forum post or another. Semi-Agrresive behavior twoards newbies. Heck, even the rule system seems rigid and almost hostile to players, old and new.
Hmm. Im not doing this very well. Let me try and divide my feelings into two categories.
1. The Game/ Rules Itself.
I dont know about a lot of you, but I kind of like talking to my friends in games, and making friends in game, then meeting some of them out of game. So, the no IC/OOC distinction feels a little stifling in the regard. Dont get me wrong, I feel it is of vital importance to the MOO in-and-of-itself, but I feel it locks us away or creates a barrier between those of us who would try to become friends otherwise, for fear of letting something slip. And, to me, the sometimes harsh and arbitrary enforcement of this rule without appeal (please, do not hold me to that, as there are probably exceptions) feel a little off to me.
2. The Community.
This is a little harder to pin down for me. I think, a lot of my uncomfort comes from a stance some in the comunity have of "If you do not like a specific mechanic then this game isnt right for you, so fuck off" kinda attitude. It's a system of rhetoric or argument where you deadlock a discussion by saying, well, that's the way it is, deal with it. Saying things like "This mechanic is ___ because that's how the game works" isnt (in my mind at least,) the best way to explain something to someone. It... I think the word I want here is Sheer. Imagine the SD community and game like a Giant Sheer Cliff, a la the Cliffs of Insanity from Princess Bride. Once a player gets to the top, he's perfectly fine and well to toss down rocks on the other climbers, if he wants, because he and other climbers have already made it to the top. Some might throw rocks, and cause others to fall (or leave/quit/decide not to play the game) and others might not.
Please feel free to refute, disagree, disprove, or otheriwse discuss this with me. These are not statements of fact in any way, simply opinions.